USB3 drive - file system corruption issue
I'm using a USB3 external drive with a BlacX box as external storage for making a copy of backup files that are also stored on a QNAP NAS. The copy is being done from a Windows 2012 R2 virtual server using a robocopy script that runs as a scheduled task after the backup is completed. After having gotten past the challenges with passthrough of the USB controller, everything seemed to be working fine with the copy process.
HOWEVER, I'm having problems with corruption of the file system on the external drives. After the copy process finishes, the disk is readable, no problem. However, the file system gets corrupted if we try in any way to remove the drive from the server. There is a large amount of data - over 2TB of backup files on a full backup - so I've configured the drive policy to optimize speed rather than quick removal. I'm not sure if that is contributing to the problem or not, though (read on).
We've tried turning off the BlacX, replacing the drive with another (previously used) drive and turning it back on - file system on the new drive is unreadable. Also, the file system on the first drive is unreadable when it's put back in and the BlacX is turned back on.
Today I tried doing a copy process and then doing the "safe removal" procedure. I got an error message on the safe removal that the disk was in use and couldn't be removed. When I went back to check the disk again, WITHOUT DOING ANYTHING ELSE, the file system was unreadable. I tested this several times, making sure first that the antivirus software wasn't scanning the drive, and I even stopped the Distributed Link Tracking Client service, which is a solution that I found in some posts online. Same result - the error message came up that the disk is in use and the file system was unreadable.
I'm at my wits' end on this. Any suggestions?
HOWEVER, I'm having problems with corruption of the file system on the external drives. After the copy process finishes, the disk is readable, no problem. However, the file system gets corrupted if we try in any way to remove the drive from the server. There is a large amount of data - over 2TB of backup files on a full backup - so I've configured the drive policy to optimize speed rather than quick removal. I'm not sure if that is contributing to the problem or not, though (read on).
We've tried turning off the BlacX, replacing the drive with another (previously used) drive and turning it back on - file system on the new drive is unreadable. Also, the file system on the first drive is unreadable when it's put back in and the BlacX is turned back on.
Today I tried doing a copy process and then doing the "safe removal" procedure. I got an error message on the safe removal that the disk was in use and couldn't be removed. When I went back to check the disk again, WITHOUT DOING ANYTHING ELSE, the file system was unreadable. I tested this several times, making sure first that the antivirus software wasn't scanning the drive, and I even stopped the Distributed Link Tracking Client service, which is a solution that I found in some posts online. Same result - the error message came up that the disk is in use and the file system was unreadable.
I'm at my wits' end on this. Any suggestions?
Thomas Zucker-Scharff
Can you bit to a Unix based boot device and read it that way?
how does the drive show in disk management? as removable - or internal drive
Could you help us understanding the setup here?
You have QNAP where the original backups are been stored.
The USB is attached to the Server which is Windows 2012 R2.
And then you are copyin the data from the QNAP NAS to the USB using robocopy and facing issues with it with corrupted file system etc.
Please confirm if this is the current setup you have.
Sudeep
You have QNAP where the original backups are been stored.
The USB is attached to the Server which is Windows 2012 R2.
And then you are copyin the data from the QNAP NAS to the USB using robocopy and facing issues with it with corrupted file system etc.
Please confirm if this is the current setup you have.
Sudeep
I think that your best bet would be the following:
1.- Configure your USB for Quick Removal
2.- Use a block based backup product to perform your backups to the USB
Basically: Do not use robocopy or any other file synch proggy to perform backups when we start to have thousands of files, and instead use a storage blocks backup (in windows a system that uses VSS).
I reckon that you should be able to do a 2TB backup to a external USB 2.0 HD in about 12h using block backup, when the same amount in files will be roughly twice as long.
USB 3.0 should be a LOT faster (5 times faster, so it should take 3-4 hours).
What you can do is just try it for yourself and see if you get a good setup, as for the backup software, you can try with
http://www.drivesnapshot.d
it has a 60 day trial, it is a cheap product if it works OK, and it's quite simple to use and try.
And if it doesn´t work for you, then go back to your previous setup.
From this you will get 2 things, first that the USB should be easier to remove from the system without corruptions, and second you get some decent speed on your backups.
1.- Configure your USB for Quick Removal
2.- Use a block based backup product to perform your backups to the USB
Basically: Do not use robocopy or any other file synch proggy to perform backups when we start to have thousands of files, and instead use a storage blocks backup (in windows a system that uses VSS).
I reckon that you should be able to do a 2TB backup to a external USB 2.0 HD in about 12h using block backup, when the same amount in files will be roughly twice as long.
USB 3.0 should be a LOT faster (5 times faster, so it should take 3-4 hours).
What you can do is just try it for yourself and see if you get a good setup, as for the backup software, you can try with
http://www.drivesnapshot.d
it has a 60 day trial, it is a cheap product if it works OK, and it's quite simple to use and try.
And if it doesn´t work for you, then go back to your previous setup.
From this you will get 2 things, first that the USB should be easier to remove from the system without corruptions, and second you get some decent speed on your backups.
ASKER
Sorry for the long delay - hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving (if you're in the US anyway!) Here are answers to all of your questions:
@Thomas Zucker-Scharff: Originally we were doing the copy process on the QNAP itself, which runs Linux, but with unfortunately the same results. We thought that moving the process to a Windows based server would fix the problem, since we're copying files from a Windows formatted drive to a Windows formatted drive. Now I'm thinking the problem is the USB3 device or controller (add-on USB3 card from StarTech).
@nobus: The drive shows as a local drive in disk management.
@Sudeep Sharma: Yes. The files are being created by Backup Exec (.bkf files) which are stored on a Windows-formatted ISCSi partition that resides on the QNAP. The USB drive is in a BlacX box (separate power supply) which is connected to a StarTech USB3 controller. The controller is installed in a VMWare ESXi 6.0 host server and is shared with the virtual machine through the use of a passthrough configuration. The virtual server is running Windows 2012 R2 and Backup Exec 15 backup software. We are using robocopy to automate the process of copying the files from the ISCSi partition to the external drive.
@Carlos Ijalba: Thanks for your suggestions, I'll take a look at that product. However, robocopy is not our front-line backup product. We're using Backup Exec 15 to do the backups, which are stored on the QNAP, and using robocopy only to make a copy of the backup files that could be taken offsite. The backup files that we're copying range between about 10 GB to 50GB in size. I would much rather be doing block-based backups but most of the available products are quite pricey. For example, I would love to use Veeam or Storagecraft but this client is a non-profit and neither of those software companies, AFAIK, have a big discount for non-profits, like Symantec does for Backup Exec.
@Thomas Zucker-Scharff: Originally we were doing the copy process on the QNAP itself, which runs Linux, but with unfortunately the same results. We thought that moving the process to a Windows based server would fix the problem, since we're copying files from a Windows formatted drive to a Windows formatted drive. Now I'm thinking the problem is the USB3 device or controller (add-on USB3 card from StarTech).
@nobus: The drive shows as a local drive in disk management.
@Sudeep Sharma: Yes. The files are being created by Backup Exec (.bkf files) which are stored on a Windows-formatted ISCSi partition that resides on the QNAP. The USB drive is in a BlacX box (separate power supply) which is connected to a StarTech USB3 controller. The controller is installed in a VMWare ESXi 6.0 host server and is shared with the virtual machine through the use of a passthrough configuration. The virtual server is running Windows 2012 R2 and Backup Exec 15 backup software. We are using robocopy to automate the process of copying the files from the ISCSi partition to the external drive.
@Carlos Ijalba: Thanks for your suggestions, I'll take a look at that product. However, robocopy is not our front-line backup product. We're using Backup Exec 15 to do the backups, which are stored on the QNAP, and using robocopy only to make a copy of the backup files that could be taken offsite. The backup files that we're copying range between about 10 GB to 50GB in size. I would much rather be doing block-based backups but most of the available products are quite pricey. For example, I would love to use Veeam or Storagecraft but this client is a non-profit and neither of those software companies, AFAIK, have a big discount for non-profits, like Symantec does for Backup Exec.
ASKER
News on this issue: I was googling again today to see if I could find anything more pertinent to server OS's, since almost everything I've found so far has been for workstations. I found this article:
http://tinyurl.com/hlqsvqg
After testing the regedit mentioned in the post that was marked as the answer to this question, it seems to have fixed my issue. I did not need to use the Safely Remove function, although that worked also.
It will take a week or so, because of the drive rotation scheme I'm using, to determine whether this is the definite fix . I'll post back with the results.
http://tinyurl.com/hlqsvqg
After testing the regedit mentioned in the post that was marked as the answer to this question, it seems to have fixed my issue. I did not need to use the Safely Remove function, although that worked also.
It will take a week or so, because of the drive rotation scheme I'm using, to determine whether this is the definite fix . I'll post back with the results.
good to hear. Good luck!
Good!, please let us know it that fixed it finally.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
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ASKER
Finding the solution required a lot of troubleshooting and testing of various methods of copying. Although the posters had some interesting suggestions, the final solution was not related to anything that was suggested.